Plan of Chicago

City Beautiful movement

The pinnacle of the movement came in 1909 with Burnham and fellow architect and urban planner Edward H. Bennett’s design for Chicago, published as the Plan of Chicago and also known as the Burnham Plan. The plan involved a 60-mile (95-kilometre) radius in which avenues would extend out from a civic centre. It included an extensive rail system, a bi-level boulevard for...

development of Chicago

Chicago was well on its way to choking on its growth when architects Daniel H. Burnham and Edward P. Bennett unveiled their 1909 Plan of Chicago. Commissioned by two private commercial organizations, the plan provided a rational transportation-based blueprint for urban growth, notably in the central area. It promised to replace ugliness and congestion with extraordinary...

...as a modern governmental function: it saw the passage of Britain’s first town-planning act and, in the United States, the first national conference on city planning, the publication of Burnham’s plan for Chicago, and the appointment of Chicago’s Plan Commission (the first recognized planning agency in the United States, however, was created in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1907). Germany,...

role of Burnham

Burnham thus brought a lifetime of experience to his masterwork, the 1909 Plan of Chicago, written with his young associate, Edward Bennett. Published by and written for the Commercial Club of Chicago, a private group of civic-minded business leaders who worked closely with Burnham on the report, the book is considered a landmark in urban planning history. It recognized the city in its...